PSC plans lengthy investigation of KC blast (AUDIO)

The Public Service Commission has five investigators looking for the cause of this week’s fatal natural gas explosion that destroyed a nightclub. The PSC sends investigators to every significant natural gas incident, even if there’s no explosion such as the one that killed one person, injured fifteen others, and caused widespread damage near the Country Club Plaza district.

Commission Chairman Kevin Gunn says the investigators will spend weeks on a detailed investigation. A major focus is on the possibility of human error. “The first thing you look for is to make sure this wasn’t a failure of infrastructure…This looks like contractor error,” he says. But he says there are numerous other issues that need to be part of a final report.

Gunn says contractors are required ahead of excavations to see if the lines had been marked and marked correctly. Investigators will be checking to see if that contractor had made the proper call.

Gunn says a final report will take two or three months to finish maybe longer.